Page 59 of Unexpectedly Wanted
21
Remy
Milo was sitting up in the bed when I returned home.
No, not home.
Returned to his house.
It wasn’t my home. And I had to remind myself that we were justplaying house.
This was never meant to last.
Hell, it never should have been a thing to begin with.
His eyes were on me as I pushed open the bedroom door. I was sure he’d gotten the alert about me unlocking the front door, so it shouldn’t have surprised me. But it did, because he looked like he was fully awake. Like he’d been waiting for me to return.
And that did things to my chest that I wasn’t sure I should smile at.
It’s not meant to last,I reminded myself.
However, staring at the hopeful and relieved look on his face, I couldn’t help but wish that it was meant to be.
The moment I shut the door, and he realized that I was truly there, I saw the way his eyes frantically bounced over every single inch of me. Whether he knew it or not, he’d been worried that I’d been hurt. The question was, should I point that out to him? I realized that I’d already said it in a text, but it was different speaking it right to his face where he couldn’t brush it off so easily. Then again, what if Milo simply needed to be slapped in the face with all these things? Maybe he needed someone to shake him and blatantly show him all the ways that told me this wasn’t something that he wanted to end.
So, I jumped into the deep end, even though I was unsure if I could swim.
“You were worried about me,” I said.
He didn’t say anything back. At least not right away.
His brows pulled together as he took in my words and tried to match them to what was going through his head.
I was surprised when it didn’t take long for things to click into place. I really thought I’d have to pull out all the stops here. Give him a list and whatnot.
“I was very concerned while you were gone,” he told me. “I had a horrible time getting anything done because you preoccupied my thoughts. I’m not used to that.”
“Hmmm,” I hummed as my head nodded. Well, we were here. Now, what was I to do? “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t think it’s really anything you can be sorry for,” he said, a little crease forming between his brows. I felt his confusion coming off in waves and I was dying to know what was going on in his head. The good thing— well, one of them— about Milo was that he usually told you what he was thinking about. So I kept my mouth shut and waited. “It’s not like you cannotgo on missions. Especially not for a silly reason, like I can’t get any work done when you’re out because I’m worried. No one should control someone’s life like that either. Which is why I can’t believe that I let something like that control mine. I don’t understand it and I wish I knew how to stop it.”
“Mi,” I said softly. “You like me.” He opened his mouth, but I shook my head. “This is what happens when you care about someone. Which means, you like me. You shouldn’t feel bad about worrying about me. It’s pretty normal when youlikesomeone. We’ll just… have to find a way to keep you focused when I’m away.”
Something about those words hit me hard. This shouldn’t have been awesituation. We were going to go our separate ways once his parents left. Yet, it had turned into awesituation and I didn’t think that would be going away any time soon.
I didn’t want it to.
“I haven’t had many people I’d consider close to get distracted by,” he said. “I suppose it’s no surprise that I might not know how this friend thing works.”
Sigh.
The F-word.
Had I been reading too much into it? Or was it that Milo wasn’t there yet? Could he not see what was happening here?
“Is that what we are now?” I asked, unceremoniously dropping my duffel bag to the ground and walking over to the bed. “Friends?”
“You shouldn’t leave that there,” he said instead of answering. “You could trip over it if you have to go pee in the middle of the night.”
